A proposed new treatment for schizophrenia, based on neuroscience research in the U.S., lacked the disadvantages of currently used drugs. Investigators described an experimental compound that reduced levels of the chemical glutamate--one of the neurotransmitters that relays messages between nerve cells--in the brain. Given to rats with symptoms (such as incessant head turning) that paralleled the psychotic symptoms of human schizophrenia, it brought marked relief with no evidence of harmful side effects. The discovery stemmed from the finding that phencyclidine (PCP, or "angel dust") induced effects similar to schizophrenia in healthy individuals by altering glutamate transmission in the brain. Current treatments for schizophrenia worked by interfering with another neurotransmitter, dopamine. These, however, often failed to control all of the symptoms. The new approach might provide the alternative type of therapy that had been sought for many years.

A study in Manchester, Eng., established that intensive cognitive behaviour therapy can provide help for patients with chronic schizophrenia. Psychiatrists compared patients receiving medication and other routine care with those also given cognitive behaviour therapy (which aims to change thought processes, behaviour, and emotions). Those having the additional treatment were eight times more likely to show major improvements in their psychotic symptoms, which can be intensely disabling, than were the patients treated conventionally. Another Manchester team systematically reviewed six independent investigations on the value of cognitive behaviour therapy to combat childhood and adolescent depressive disorder. Their study of 208 patients (aged 8-19) treated in this way showed that cognitive behaviour therapy was indeed effective in helping those with moderately severe depressive disorders. The same approach, however, could not yet be recommended for those suffering from severe depression.

Research in Australia and the U.K. shed light on the underlying basis of major depression disorder in older people, which often has a poor prognosis. Brain scanning revealed that many such people often undergo changes known as deep white-matter lesions. Depression, it was discovered, is much more likely to relapse and to become chronic in individuals with the lesions than in those lacking them. Investigations now under way on the chemical basis of these changes could lead to improved therapies.

Depressive symptoms in older women were found to be associated with higher mortality. A seven-year study of white American women aged 67 or above showed that the mortality rate for those with six or more depressive symptoms was 24%, compared with 17% for those with three to five symptoms and 7% for women with no symptoms. The greatest increased risk was that of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Evidence continued to accumulate on the relationship between psychiatric illness and adverse factors such as unemployment and poverty. Analyses of more than 7,000 British people established that both of these social factors were linked with the continuation, but not the onset, of most common mental disorders. Individuals suffering from more than a year’s poverty and financial strain were significantly more likely to develop a psychiatric illness.

Another U.K. survey, of more than 10,000 adults, showed that, independent of other influences, a low standard of living was associated with an increased prevalence of neurotic psychiatric disorders. The authors of this study observed that during the previous 20 years one of the largest increases in income inequality in the Western world had taken place in the U.K., and they argued that this may have had adverse consequences for the mental health of the population.

American researchers pinpointed a gene that predisposes its carriers to psychiatric illness. Wolfram syndrome, characterized by diabetes mellitus and degeneration of the optic nerve and other parts of the nervous system, had previously been known to occur in people whose cells contained two copies of a particular mutant gene. The new findings concerned individuals who had one mutant and one normal gene. Although they did not suffer from Wolfram syndrome, they were 26 times more likely than average to develop psychiatric disease requiring hospital care. This discovery could explain the occasional reports that relatives of Wolfram syndrome patients were unusually likely to attempt suicide and to be admitted to a hospital for psychiatric reasons.

Researchers in The Netherlands implicated smoking in Alzheimer’s disease. Contrary to previous studies, which implied that the habit might be protective, they reported that in a study of 7,000 individuals, smoking was associated with a doubling of the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Because the investigation was retrospective, following the subjects over time, the conclusions were likely to be more reliable than those of earlier studies based on less-rigorous methods.

Correlation of information regarding traffic accidents in the U.K. with information about drugs prescribed for the drivers showed that those taking benzodiazepines or zopiclone had an increased risk of experiencing an accident. The investigators concluded that users of those tranquilizers should be advised not to drive.

Veterinary Medicine

Concerns arose during 1998 that the widespread use of antibiotics in farm animals could result in a loss of effectiveness when antibiotics were used to treat human infections. There had been suggestions that the use of products based on quinolone and fluoroquinolone could contribute to the creation of resistant strains of foodborne bacteria such as Salmonella and Campylobacter, which cause severe illness in humans as well as animals. A World Health Organization (WHO) meeting convened in Geneva in June recommended international cooperation to gather data, standardize testing methods, and develop a code of practice for the use of such products.

The biennial congress of the International Pig Veterinary Society, July 5-9, attracted more than 1,500 veterinarians to Birmingham, Eng. Delegates from 50 countries discussed problems in the production, health, welfare, and disease control of hogs. There was particular emphasis on porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, a viral disease that occurred worldwide and could cause serious losses among affected animals.

A symposium organized by the Office International des Epizooties on classical swine fever was held in conjunction with the conference. The disease had resisted international efforts to eradicate it and remained widespread, causing economic problems in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. A recent resurgence in Western and Central Europe affected pig breeding and called into question the effectiveness of prevention and control strategies. Recent developments in diagnostic and vaccine technology, however, were said to offer prospects for new approaches to controlling the disease.

A new variant strain of foot-and-mouth disease identified by the World Reference Laboratory, Pirbright, Eng., as originating in Iran and named A/Iran/96 had spread to Turkey by 1998. Existing vaccines had proved ineffective, and so vaccines incorporating the new strain were produced. Vaccination of all ruminants in nearby areas was urged.

Scrapie is a disease of sheep caused by a prion protein (PrP) that has links with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans; material from scrapie-infected sheep was also believed to be the origin of bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow" disease) in cattle. Attempts to eradicate scrapie would be greatly helped by the availability of a test to diagnose it before signs of the disease appeared. B.E.C. Schreuder and colleagues at The Netherlands Institute for Animal Science and Health devised a test that detected scrapie infection at 10 months of age, about halfway through the incubation period and well before clinical signs developed. The test was simple to perform and relatively noninvasive, using biopsies of material taken from the tonsil of the animal.

Knowledge of the weight of a horse is essential for calculating the dosage of medicines, formulating rations, and training for optimum condition. Methods of assessing the weight in the absence of a weighbridge (a platform scale flush with the roadway) included specially calibrated tapes, formulas based on body girth and length, precalculated tables, and visual estimation relying on the experience of the observer. J.M. Ellis of Warwickshire College, Moreton Morrell, Eng., and colleague Teresa Hollands endeavoured to establish the comparative accuracy of different methods by comparing the results in 600 horses of similar size and age against the actual weight. The accuracy of the results varied widely, the degree of error depending on the height of the horse. Most accurate, at 98.6%, was a formula developed in 1988 by C. L. Carroll and P. J. Huntingdon: weight (kg) equals the square of the girth multiplied by the body length (cm) divided by 11,877. Least accurate was visual estimation, scoring 88.3%.